Laura Lee Hope - Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour

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The next few days were busy ones in the Brown home. The big automobile
was packed with bed clothes and with things for the children, their
father and mother and Uncle Tad to wear, and also with things to eat.

At last, one morning, all was ready for the start.

"Good-bye," waved Mary, the cook, who was to have a vacation, while the
Browns were away.

"Good-bye!" called Bunny and Sue, and then Mr. Brown, who was at the
steering wheel, while Uncle Tad, Bunny, Sue and their mother rode
inside, started the car, and Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue were off on
an auto tour.

Merrily they rode along, Bunny and Sue talking happily, when, all at
once Bunny cried:

"Wait! Hold on! Where is Splash?"

CHAPTER VI

TWO DOGS

Mr. Brown as soon as he heard Bunny's cry of "Wait!" at once shut off
the power from the big automobile, and brought it to a stop. He turned
to look through the little window at the back of the front seat against
which he leaned, and asked:

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, Daddy, we've forgotten Splash!" wailed Bunny.

"We've left him behind," chattered Sue. "I saw him and Dix--that's Fred
Ward's dog--playing together, and I thought of course Splash would come
with us. I forgot, and left one of the funny clown dresses for Sallie
Malinda up in my room, so I went to get it, and then Splash and Dix were
away down at the end of the yard and I didn't think any more about our
dog."

"I didn't either," said Bunny. "But he always has come with us and I
thought he would this time."

"Are you sure he isn't somewhere in the auto, under one of the cots
asleep?" asked Mr. Brown.

"I'll look," said Uncle Tad, and he did, but without finding Splash.

"I forgot all about him," admitted Mrs. Brown, and her husband said the
same thing.

"Well, what are we going to do?" asked Mr. Brown, as soon as every one
was satisfied that the dog was not in the big auto-van.

"Do? Why, we've got to go back after him, of course!" cried Bunny.

"We couldn't go without Splash," announced Sue. "He'd be so lonesome for
us that he'd cry, and then he'd start out to find us and maybe get lost
and we'd never find him again. Go back after him, Daddy! It isn't very
far."

"All right," said good-natured Mr. Brown. "I'm glad we're not in a
hurry. Still I'd like to keep going, now that we've started. But please,
all of you, make sure nothing else is forgotten. For we don't want to go
back another time. All ready to turn around and march backward," and he
backed the big automobile at a wide place in the road, for it needed
plenty of room in which to turn.

Slowly the big car made its way back to the Brown home. Mary, the cook,
was the first to see it, and, running to the door, she cried:

"Oh, whatever you do, come in and sit down if only for a minute, some of
you! Oh, do come in and sit down!"

"What for, Mary?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Has anything happened?"

"No, but 'tis easy to see you've forgotten somethin'; and when that
happens if you don't sit down, or turn your dress wrong side out, bad
luck is sure to foller you when you start off again. So come in and sit
down, as that's easier than turning a dress."

"Oh, let me turn my knickerbockers outside in!" cried Bunny. "That will
be as good as you or Sue, Momsie, turning your dresses. It's easy for
me. Then I can make-believe I'm a tramp, and I'll run on ahead and beg
for some bread and butter for my starving family," and he imitated, in
such a funny way, the whine of some of the tramps who called at the
Brown kitchen door, that his mother laughed and Sue said:

"Oh, Momsie, let me turn my dress wrong-side out, too, and I can play
tramp with Bunny. That will be fun!"

"No, you mustn't do that," said Mrs. Brown. "While we're hunting for
Splash--who isn't in sight. Where can he be?--we'll go in and sit down a
moment to please Mary."

"Would we have bad luck if we didn't?" asked Bunny.

"Not at all. But some persons, like Mary, believe in them; and Mary is
very fond of us. Even if we do not believe in some of the things those
we like believe in, as long as it does no harm to our beliefs, we can do
them to please a friend."

Even Mr. Brown, because he liked Mary, went in and sat down for a minute
with the others.

"Now you've done away with the bad luck," said the cook with a smile.
"What was it you came back for?"

"Splash," answered Bunny.

"He didn't come with us," added Sue.

"Well, it's no wonder, the funny way he's cuttin' up with that dog next
door," said Mary.

"What did he do?" asked Bunny. "Was it funny? Please tell us, Mary."

"Well, it might have been funny for him, but it wasn't for me," said the
cook, though she could not help smiling. "The two dogs was playin' tag
on the lawn. I had some napkins spread out on the grass to bleach, and
what did that dog Dix do but run down in the brook, and then come back
with his feet all mud and run over my napkins. Sure, I had to wash 'em
all again. That's what them two dogs did. The bad luck was just startin'
in when you come back, an' it's good you did, to sit down a bit an' take
it off."

"But we must get on again," said Mr. Brown. "So hurry, Bunny and Sue.
Find Splash. If he's muddy make him swim through the brook and clean
himself off. A run along the sunny road will soon dry him."

"But don't let him splash your clean clothes, children," called their
mother after them, as the two ran off together to find the missing dog.

"I hear them barking!" called Bunny, as he and his sister hurried toward
the end of the yard.

"So do I." Then, a moment later, the little girl added: "There they
are!" and she pointed to the two dogs playing on the green lawn not far
from a little brook that ran through Mr. Brown's grounds.

"Here, Splash! Splash!" called Bunny.

The dogs stopped their playing, and looked toward the children. As soon
as Splash saw his little master and mistress he came rushing toward them
as fast as he could.

"Don't let him jump on me and get my dress muddy!" cried Sue. "He's been
in the mud just awful!"

"So he has," said Bunny Brown. "Down, Splash! Down!" he called, as the
dog neared Sue. Splash made all the signs he knew to show how glad he
was to see Bunny and Sue, but he did not get up on his hind legs and put
his paws on Sue's shoulders, as he sometimes did.

"Oh, Splash, you're awful dirty!" cried Sue. "You must run in the brook,
where the water is clean, and where there are white pebbly stones
instead of mud on the bottom, to wash yourself. You've got to go in too,
Dix."

Dix barked "bow-wow," to show he did not mind, I suppose.

"Go on in, Splash!" cried Bunny, snapping his fingers and pointing at
the brook. "Go in and wash!"

But though the Browns' dog was usually ready for a frolic in the water
he did not seem to be so just now. He ran back and forth, down to the
edge of the stream and back again, getting his paws wet, but nothing
else.

"Oh, you must go in and have your bath if you are to come with us!"
cried Sue. "Go on in, Splash!"

But not even for Sue would Splash go in, until finally Bunny cried:

"Oh, I know a way to make him!"

"How?" asked Sue.

"Just throw a stick into the water, and he'll go after it and bring it
back. We'll throw it far out."

"Oh, that's right!" cried Sue. "We'll do that."

No sooner had the children picked up sticks than the two dogs, who had
started to play "tag" themselves, knew what was up. They both loved to
go into the water after sticks.

"Throw 'em far out now!" cried Bunny. He tossed his to the middle of the
brook, and Sue flung hers nearly as far, for she was a good
thrower--almost as good as Bunny.

Dix swam after Sue's stick, and Splash went for Bunny's. In a minute
they had brought them ashore and dropped them at the children's feet,
looking up into their faces as much as to say:

"Do it again! We love to chase sticks!"

And then, just as dogs always do when they come from the water, they
gave themselves big shakes.

"Look out, Sue!" called Bunny.

But he was too late. A shower of drops from Splash went all over Sue's
dress, and some of the drops were not clean water, either.

"Oh dear!" she cried. "Now I'll have to change my dress!"

"Never mind," said Bunny. "You run up to the house and get that done,
and I'll throw the two sticks into the water. Then Splash and Dix will
go in again, and when they come out they'll be cleaner. I won't come
back to the house with them until they are good and clean."

Once more Bunny tossed the sticks, as Sue went up to change her dress.
When her mother saw her she cried:

"Oh dear, Sue! How did that happen?"

Sue told her.

"Well, I hope Bunny gets the dogs clean this time," said Mrs. Brown as
she took Sue upstairs to put another dress on her. This did not take
long, and a little while afterward Bunny came running up from the brook
with the two dogs, dripping wet from their baths.

"Quick, Momsie and Sue!" he called to his mother and sister. "Get in the
auto before the dogs shower you again with water. I've got 'em good and
clean now. I made 'em go in four times after the sticks."

"Did they shake any water on you?" asked Mr. Brown.

"Not much," said Bunny. "Besides, my clothes are dark and the mud on
them won't show. Now don't go away again, Splash, 'cause we're going on
a long auto tour, and you want to come with us."

All were soon in the auto again, and as they started off, with more
"good-byes" and "good lucks," Bunny and Sue made sure that this time
Splash followed.

"Now he's started he won't turn back," said Mr. Brown. "He just missed
us before, thinking, I suppose, if he saw us go, that we would come
back."

The big automobile traveled on for about an hour, and they were several
miles from the Brown home when Bunny, looking out of the rear door of
the auto-van cried:

"Why there's Dix, Fred Ward's dog, following us along with Splash!
Look!"

"So he is," said Mrs. Brown. "Oh, dear! These dogs! What are we going to
do?"

CHAPTER VII

DIX IN TROUBLE

"Is Dix really following us?" asked Mr. Brown, as, once more, he stopped
the big automobile.

"He seems to be," answered Mrs. Brown. "He and Splash are trotting along
together as happy as two clams."

"Clams can't trot," said Bunny quickly.

"No, but they can be happy," said his mother. "And Splash and Dix seem
to be happy, now, trotting along together after us."

"They're altogether too happy," said Mr. Brown. "I wonder how we're
going to get Dix back home? Mr. and Mrs. Ward think as much of him as we
do of Splash, and they'll be sorry to have him run away."

"We must try to send him home some way," said Mrs. Brown. "Bunny, you
have a pretty good way with dogs, suppose you get out and try to drive
Dix back home. Tell him we love him, think he's a nice dog and all that,
but we believe it isn't best for him to come with us now."

"All right, I will," said Bunny, and he hopped down from the automobile,
which had a little set of steps at the back to make getting in and out
easy. Though Bunny, it is true, generally jumped out, not using the
steps at all.

While the big automobile had been traveling on, Splash, knowing he was a
member of this party, had gone along as a matter of course. And,
perhaps, in some kind of dog language (which I am sure there must be) he
had said to his friend Dix something like this:

"Come along, old chap. The folks are going for a little excursion into
the country. I know they are, for once before we traveled like this, and
it was jolly fun. There'll be good things to eat, and no end of cats to
chase, too, if you like that."

"Well, I used to like it," Dix said--perhaps.

"Then come along," urged Splash. "I'm sure the folks will be glad to
have you."

"All right, I will," Dix may have answered.

And so it was he had run along, playing beside the road with Splash. And
it was not until the automobile had gone several miles that the family
noticed that another dog besides their own was following them.

"Drive him back home as your mother told you, Bunny," said the little
boy's father.

Bunny ran back to where Dix and Splash were rolling over and over on the
grass. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"Go on home! Go on home!" cried Bunny.

At once Splash and Dix stopped playing and ran to the little boy. As his
mother had said, Bunny knew how to talk to dogs in a way they could
understand.

"Go on home!" said the little boy again, very earnestly.

Splash looked up in surprise. He was not used to being sent home.

"Oh, I don't mean you," said Bunny. "I mean you, Dix! Mother says we
like you very much, and would like to have you with us, but your folks
want you home with them. So go on back. Go home, I say!"

Bunny stamped his foot, spoke as sternly as he could without being too
cross, and pointed back toward Bellemere.

Dix looked into Bunny's face a minute, and then slowly the dog's tail
drooped between his legs and he slunk off, with what was really a sad
face looking at Bunny and Splash. It was as if he said:

"Say, look here, Splash! I thought you invited me on this excursion, and
now that boy of yours goes and drives me home."

"Well, I can't help it," Splash seemed to say. "There is something wrong
somewhere."

Bunny felt sad at having to drive Dix back home.

"I'm sorry, old fellow," he said, and his voice was so kind that Dix
turned and came running back.

"No! No! You mustn't do that!" cried Bunny, seeing what his kind words
had done. "Go on back home, Dix!"

Once again Dix's tail drooped between his legs, and he turned back. He
went on for some distance, never turning to look back.

"There, I guess he'll not follow us any more," said Bunny. "Come on,
Splash. You get up in the automobile and ride with us. Then Dix won't
see you, and want to come along."

Bunny led his own dog back to the big car, Splash going willingly
enough, though once or twice he looked back at Dix, who was walking
slowly the homeward road.

Again the auto started off.

"This is two delays we've had," said Mr. Brown. "If we have another I'll
begin to think there is something in Mary's idea of bad luck, after
all."

It was Sue who discovered Dix the next time. As the automobile was about
to go around a curve the little girl gazed out of the back window and
saw the Ward dog trotting happily along toward the moving automobile.

"Oh, Daddy, look there!" cried Sue. "Dix is coming after us again! What
are we going to do?"

"Is that dog following us once more?" asked Mr. Brown, as he stopped the
automobile.

"Yes, he is; and he seems happy."

"Oh dear!" said Mrs. Brown. "What trouble these dogs are giving us
to-day!"

"Well, this is the third trouble, and let us hope it will be the last,"
said Mr. Brown.

"Are you going to send Dix back again?" asked Bunny.

"No, I don't think it would do any good. Besides, we are now about ten
miles from home. He might not find his way."

"That would be too bad," said Mrs. Brown. "The Wards would not want to
lose their dog."

"I presume the only thing for us to do is to turn around and carry him
back again," said Mr. Brown slowly.

Just then Splash, who had been lying inside under one of the sleeping
cots, awoke, and, looking out of the rear door of the auto, saw his
friend Dix trotting merrily along.

"Bow-wow!" barked Splash.

"Wow-wuff-wow!" answered Dix.

That meant in dog language I suppose:

"Well, I'm glad to see you again, old fellow."

"And I'm glad to see you," said Dix. "I hope they don't drive me back
again. But I went only to the first turn in the road. There I waited
awhile and then came on. I could easily tell which way you came by the
big wheel-marks."

"Well, I guess there's no hope for it," said Mr. Brown, as the two dogs
stopped barking. "It's turn around again and take Dix back with us to
his home. It's a good thing we're not in a hurry."

He was about to turn the big car, and Dix had come to a stop a short
distance away from it when Bunny suddenly cried:

"Oh, I've thought of a way to do it!"

"A way to do what?" his father asked.

"Take care of Dix."

"Do you mean to ask somebody going past in another automobile to take
Dix to Bellemere?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"No. But in that house," and Bunny pointed to one not far away, "is a
telephone. I can see the wires, and they're just like our telephone
wires. Why can't we call up Mr. Ward and ask him if we can take his dog
along with us?"

"Take Dix with us!" cried Mrs. Brown. "What would we do with two dogs?"

"Well, they'll be company for each other," said Sue, who had taken a
great liking to Dix.

"And Dix wants to come," added Bunny. "You see how hard it is to drive
him back."

"But we don't need him, and two dogs are harder to look after than one,"
said Mr. Brown. "Dix has made trouble enough to-day, though part of it
was Splash's fault."

It was then Bunny had his fine idea.

"Oh, I know the best reason in the world for taking Dix with us!" he
cried. "Wait and I'll 'splain it all to you. Just let Dix and Splash
play together until I get through talking."

"Well, let's hear your idea, Bunny," said Mr. Brown with a smile, as he
leaned back in his seat and rested his back. Splash, seeing his dog
friend, leaped from the car and the two were soon playing together in
the road as merrily as ever.

CHAPTER VIII

DIX AND THE COW

"Now," said Bunny, as he sat down on a little stool in the auto to talk
to his father and mother--and Sue, of course, and Uncle Tad, who were
all listening. "Now it wouldn't hurt an awful lot to take Dix with us,
would it?"

"What do you mean?" asked his mother.

"I mean Dix wouldn't eat much more than Splash, would he?"

"Oh, I guess if it comes to feeding dogs, two come about as cheaply as
one," said Mr. Brown with a laugh. "But what's the idea, Bunny?"

"Well, I'd like to have Dix come along with us then. It will save time
now in taking him back."

"Yes, it will do _that_," said Mr. Brown. "And it's quite a way back
home this time."

"And Splash will have company to play with all the while," went on
Bunny. "Two dogs are happier than one, aren't they?" he asked. "If two
dogs eat more than one then two must be happier than one."

"It's a new way of looking at it, but I guess it may be true," laughed
Mrs. Brown. "But are you doing all this talking, Bunny, just to have
company for Splash?"

"No indeedy I'm not!" exclaimed Bunny. "I haven't 'splained it all."

"What else is there?" asked Mr. Brown, laughing.

"Well, if Mr. Ward will let us take Dix along--and you can find out
about that over the telephone--then maybe we can find Fred."

For a moment no one spoke after Bunny had announced his plan. His father
and mother looked sharply at him, and so did Sue and Uncle Tad.

"How can Dix find Fred?" asked Sue.

"'Cause didn't the bloodhounds find the runaway slaves in Uncle Tom's
Cabin?" demanded Bunny.

"Yes," answered Sue. "I 'member that."

"Well then, won't Dix find Fred the same way?" went on Bunny. "He can
smell his tracks along the road and we'll find that runaway boy a lot
quicker than if we didn't have his dog along. Fred and Dix were always
together, and I guess Fred couldn't have run away if Dix had seen him.
So if we take Dix along, and have to look for Fred in big crowds, Dix'll
come in 'specially handy."

"Oh, won't that be fun!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. "Do let's take
Dix along!"

"I believe Bunny's plan is a good one," said Mr. Brown, after thinking
about it a while. "We don't know Fred very well, and he may look
different, now that he has gone away from home, from what he did before.
His dog would know him, however, no matter how Fred dressed."

"He'd know him even if he had on a Hallowe'en false face, wouldn't he?"
asked Sue.

"I guess so," answered Daddy Brown. "Well, I'll go and telephone to Mr.
Ward and see what he says."

The people in the house into which the telephone wires ran were very
willing Mr. Brown should use the instrument, and he was soon talking to
Mr. Ward back in Bellemere.

"Surely you may take Dix with you," said Mr. Ward over the telephone
wire. "I only hope he will not be a trouble to you. I know he will make
a fuss just as soon as he comes anywhere near Fred. So, in that way, you
may be able to trace my boy. I hope you will. His mother hopes so too.
She is beside me here as I am talking, and she sends you her thanks.
Take Dix with you if you wish."

"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sue, when she heard the news. "Aren't you,
Bunny? Now we have two dogs!"

"Yes, one will be yours and one mine, until we get back home with Dix.
Then we'll each own half of Splash, as we've always done."

This suited Sue, and, now that the dog question was settled, the
automobile started on again.

For a little while everything was peaceful and quiet in the big
automobile. Bunny went outside on the front seat with his father, and
looked down the road along which they were running. It was a pleasant
road, with trees arching across overhead from one side to the other.

Inside the big car Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad "got things to rights," as
the children's mother called it, while Sue took out some of her toys,
including the big Teddy bear with the electric eyes, whose adventures
have been told in the book just before this one.

Bunny and his father talked together on the seat in front. Bunny was
interested in whether or not they would find Fred.

"Well, we may and we may not," said Mr. Brown. "It is true Fred said he
was going to run away to Portland, the city where we are going. But we
will not be there for some time, and before then Fred may think he does
not like it there and go somewhere else."

"Well, I think Dix will help find him, don't you?" asked Bunny.

"Yes, I hope so, Son."

Just then came a call from inside the automobile.

"Who's ready for dinner?"

[Illustration: THE TWO DOGS CAME WITH A RUSH.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour._ _Page_ 79.]

"I am!" cried Bunny, the first one.

"So am I," added Sue.

"Then come on! Rations are served," said Uncle Tad who had been in the
army.

He and Mrs. Brown had cooked their first meal on the gasolene stove in
the little kitchen and dining room combined, and it was now ready to
serve.

Bunny clambered in by way of the front seat and took his place at the
little table.

"I think we had better stop beside the road while we eat," said Mr.
Brown. "This automobile is all right for traveling, but the roads are so
rough here that I may spill my tea. So we'll anchor and eat."

"Daddy thinks we're in a boat I guess, when he talks about anchoring,"
said Sue, who, more than once, had been out in the big fishing boat with
her father.

Then the meal began. There was some cooked meat, for they could carry
meat in the ice box, baked potatoes, and, best of all, some pie.

It was while he was eating his pie and drinking his milk that Bunny
suddenly cried:

"The dogs!"

"What about them?" asked Mrs. Brown quickly. "Are they fighting? Where
are they, Bunny?"

"Just over in that field playing. But we didn't call Splash and Dix to
dinner."

"Oh, is that all? I think they can wait a bit," said Mrs. Brown with a
laugh. "By the way you spoke I thought something had happened."

"Well, this pie tasted good, that's part of what happened," said Bunny,
with a laugh. "And then I got to wishing Dix and Splash could have
some."

"I'll feed them when the rest of you have finished," promised Mrs.
Brown.

When the meal was over Mrs. Brown gathered up a big plateful of scraps
from the table, and gave it to Bunny to feed Dix and Splash.

"Here Dix!" called Bunny, inviting the "company" dog first, which was
proper, I suppose. "Here, Dix and Splash!"

The two dogs heard and must have known that they were being called to
dinner, for they came with a rush, each one trying to see which would
be the first to reach Bunny with the plateful of good food.

"You'd better put the dish on the ground and get away," said Mr. Brown
with a laugh. "Otherwise they'll be so glad to see you, Bunny, that
they'll knock you down and roll over you."

"I guess they will," said the little boy. So he put the plate of meat,
bread and potato scraps on the ground near the big automobile and then
stepped back out of the way.

Dix and Splash did not take long to finish the food on the plate, and
then they looked up at Bunny and wagged their tails, as if asking for
more.

"No more!" called Mrs. Brown to them, for she understood the feeding of
dogs. "That will do you until supper."

Seeing they were going to get no more, Dix and Splash ran off together
again to have more fun rolling about in the grass.

"Where do you think we shall stop for the night?" asked Mrs. Brown of
her husband as they set off once more.

"Just outside the town of Freeburg," he answered. "We'll sleep in the
auto, of course, for if we are making a tour this way it's the proper
thing to do. But we'll be near enough a town for supplies or anything we
may need."

"Goodness! We don't need anything this soon, nor have we a place to put
another thing away," protested Mrs. Brown.

Her husband laughed. "However, it's well to be near a town overnight,"
he said.

So the big automobile chugged on. Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad washed the
dishes and put them away, and then they sat looking out at the side
windows and enjoying the trip. Now and then Mr. Brown would talk in
through the open window against which the steering wheel seat was built.
Bunny and his sister sometimes rode inside, and again outside with Daddy
Brown.

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